Various low or medium performance surfboards or similar types of boards exist which are inflatable, where such boards can be rolled up when deflated, for instance, for easy and compact transport. However, such boards fail to provide high performance, high maneuverability, and high responsiveness associated with conventional or traditional high performance board designs. For instance, ULI Boards (ULI Corp., San Diego, Calif. USA) offers a number of such inflatable surfboards and stand up paddle boards. With respect to higher or high performance surfboard designs, a number of Hydroflex surfboards (Hyderoflex Technology LLC, Oceanside, Calif. USA) are produced using a specially formulated resin and an open cell foam that can be pressurized up to approximately 9 psi. Such pressurization enables a certain degree of customization of surfboard stiffness or flex properties. Unfortunately, the available pressurization range is undesirably limited, resulting in an undesirably limited ability to customize surfboard properties based upon a wide range of rider preferences and/or surf conditions. Additionally, current higher/high performance surfboard designs are typically manufactured using toxic resins and non-recyclable materials, which do not lend themselves to the manufacture of essentially an entire surfboard by way of additive manufacturing or 3D printing.
Made Boards (Made LLC, Chicago, Ill. USA) produces windsurfing boards that are partially manufactured by way of 3D printing. Such windsurfing boards include an internal thermoplastic lattice that is reinforced with a bamboo underlayer and a fiberglass shell. However, such windsurfing boards are not manufactured essentially entirely by way of 3D printing, and after manufacture, any given windsurfing board of this type offers undesirably limited customizability. Moreover, such windsurfing boards are not pressurizable/inflatable for customizing performance characteristics.
A need exists for a surfboard design that offers riders significantly or greatly enhanced ability to customize surfboard performance characteristics, and the ability to produce essentially the entire surfboard by way of 3D printing using non-toxic and recyclable materials.